Human Realm
by Tarisch
Summary: The Horseman's of the Apocalypse are send down to earth. In Human body's they follow the order of the council and hunt down a monster escaped from his prison and hiding in the Human Realm. But every Horseman takes their rare chance to visit the human plane in disguise and get lucky in their own way.
1. Strife

Strife kept chewing on the match in his mouth as he looked up from his cards. He had been playing cards for three hours now, some humans had left angry at their loose but there had always been others to take their place.

Expect for that one guy. The man with black beard and the cigar stump in his mouth nearly pierced him with his eyes as he had lost quiet a lot of money on this game.

Well Strife had been smart enough to let others win in a game once in a while, but they could never win as long as he sat on the table.

He was the master of cards in this little Pub they all just didn't know it yet.

The body's the council had given to them were enough to hide their true forms from the people of earth and seem like the next best human on the street.

And as long as he still had this body he would use it for all the fun he could get.

But his inner watch told him that Blackbeard had lost enough and would soon…

"I think you are cheating!" well, it was too late anyway.

Strife looked up and raised an eyebrow.

"Pardon please? What did you say?" he asked.

Of course, Blackbeard was right there was nothing better than being good at mixing cards, fast with your fingers and the occasional trick. Only really dumb demons still played cards with him and he the humans were a welcome change-

"I said. You. Are. Cheating." The man was furious, his eyes fixed at Strife, his hands fists.

Strife knew that his guns were still hidden inside his coat by the door, but he wouldn't need them.

"Do you have proof my good man?" Strife wanted to know as friendly as he could.

"No. Not yet. I give you that." The man answered grudgingly.

"But you are the one on this table who always wins, only sometimes loosing small amounts, for three hours straight. I call bullshit on that!"

Blackbeard took the cigar stump out of his mouth and spit on the table.

Strife just leaned back and relaxed.

"No proof? So why don't you go over to bar and take a shot on my expense? I see you are angry about your misfortune, but I tell…"

"I think he is right." Another man with a scar across his right cheek came from one of the darker tables and stood up besides Blackbeard. "I saw the game now for the last two hours and it is right what he says."

Well. Strife knew where this was going.

"Well, but you boys still got no proof of anything. Why don't you both got to the bar and take a shot at my…"

He landed on the ground sooner than he had expected.

Another guest of the Pub had taken a side and simply thrown him on the ground with his chair.

The first strike hit on his left cheek and Strife couldn't help but wonder how humans even survived with this weak body's.

The high amount of pain was something new to him and it exited him for about two seconds, then another strike hit.

"Could you stop hitting me for a moment man!?" the baldhead that had sat down on him could barely hear him over the sound of the out breaking bar brawl but he stopped for a second as the small eyes processed what he had said.

As Strife threw the cards in his face he aimed with one of them and flipped one directly into the right eye of the big man.

The baldhead jolted back and Strife brought is legs up to entangle his neck, pulling him backwards and of the horseman.

He got up with on fast jump and determined the situation.

Chairs broke and bottles shattered as everyone in the bar fought against another.

That was another strange thing that always happened in situations like that whenever he was around.

Everyone forgot about old grudges and jealousy, only to create entirely new ones at a drop of a hat and have a fight where everyone hated each other equally.

What reason that could be? Strife laughed to himself as his powers flew pack into his body.

He took the money from the table before turning around and giving the baldhead a kick to the head so strong he fell back on the floor.

The Horseman let out a sight, evaded two fighters and stole a bottle out of the hand of another before reaching the bar.

As casually as possible he took some of the paper money and set it behind the counter, only to look into the eyes of a frightened barkeep cowering on the floor together with an employee.

The amount of money doubled.

"Thank you man." The barkeep whispered as he reached for the phone above him.

Strife evaded a bottle without a need to looking back and it hit the mirror behind the bar.

"I am only paying my bottle." He said and showed the half empty bottle he had picked up.

He turned around and emptied said bottle, only stopping once as a man fell flat down in front of him before taking a big step over him.

Jumping over another table and tripping a guy that was running to fast before smashing his bottle on the head of another guy that didn't know his enemy had enough and finally arriving at the door.

The fight was already getting quiet as he put on his leather coat and stepped outside.

It was raining, as another guy was thrown out of the window besides the door and decided that the ground was his new friend now.

Strife shrugged and stepped carefully over him.

He took his mobile phone out of his pocket and checked it out.

Nothing.

Still no call.


	2. War

The rain had turned into light snowfall as Strife walked through the streets and watched as some vendors closed their doors behind schedule. The streets of the city were almost deserted of humans, only a few were hurrying home to avoid the coming cold.

The Horseman enjoyed the silence for a while and was humming a song to himself as he heard a certain clicking sound.

He looked up and saw a young woman, sitting under the transparent cover of a bus stop, another clicking sound came from her direction.

Strife raised an eyebrow and walked over to her.

She had holed herself up in her jacket and tried to lighten her cigarette with an almost empty lighter.

He lit one of his matches and brought it close to her.

She looked up and saw the friendly smile on the strangers face before she lit her cigarette with his match.

"Tanks." She murmured as Strife sat down on the bench beside her.

"No big thing." The Nephelim answered as he eyed her up, noticing the long ash blond hair she hid under her hood.

"Do you have on for me?" he asked and pointed at his lips.

She only nodded and began searching her jacket for cigarettes.

He waited until she handed him one and lit it up, he drew in the first breath and tried not to cough as his human body was not accustomed to the smoke.

Strife calmed himself and noticed that the young lady was too lost in thought to have noticed anything.

He cleared his throat. "So… late from work I guess?"

She blinked and looked up as she came back into the now.

"I am Sorry, what did you say?"

"No other people with you, lost in thought, waiting for a bus, a bit sunken in like after a long day at work. I was just guessing you had a rough day."

She nodded and smiled lightly.

"Yes, quiet right. Today was just not my day it seems. Quiet a lot of work and not always pleasant."

Her smile vanished as she drew in another breath from her cigarette.

"Well, what are you working for that you look so thoughtful?" he asked, actually interested.

"I am just a nurse in the clinic outside the city, nothing too bad I guess."

"You are a nurse and you are smoking? Isn't the whole thing bad for your health?" Strife said teasingly.

"Well, it's my own health and you are smoking…" "Thanks."

Srife couldn't hide a smile as he saw hers. "…yourself." She added with a light chuckle and looked straight into his face.

"I also think you may want to check your own health before mine, because that is going to leave a nice bruise and a black eye."

He cursed himself for once again forgetting he was in a foreign body and not his own, who would have healed any evidence of the bar fight him long ago.

"What happened?" she asked before throwing her cigarette onto the ground and stepping on it.

"Well, there was dispute about a game of cards in a pub far from here, I tried to calm the situation a bit, but it seems like that didn't do me much good."

"Very clearly not." She said as she examined his bruise a bit closer.

"Could be that I need nurse myself." He said jokingly, flinching as she touched the area around his left eye.

She laughed a bit more and gave him a full smile as he recovered.

"Better than any medicine!" he said only half joking.

* * *

><p>Another train passed by and through the underground station as War took another look around. He was waiting for someone, a contact person in fact, but not much had changed from the last time he had searched the station.<p>

The young woman on the bench in front of him gave him a forced smile and looked away, obviously feeling uncomfortable around the big man with pricing blue eyes and snow white hair.

He ignored her and looked down the station hall, still finding the man in his red costume and fake beard sitting on a separate bench and nobody else.

Even from the distance he could basically see the man's age and his brown bag was full of cheap food which led him to assume that he wasn't very rich to begin with.

War had settled back to waiting and closed his eyes as he heard a group approaching, obviously drunk and badly singing.

He waited for them to pass or settle down but neither happened, instead he heard them yelling and cursing.

After a while War looked up again, only to see four young men, big, strong and drunk, circling around the costumed older man. It followed what he was suspecting, the young boys started mouthing off against the other man.

Calling him names and ridiculing him for still wearing a costume even if a certain holyday was already over.

The Horseman could see that the older man grow more frightened by the second, clutching his bag beside him even stronger.

But this was not Wars problem, this was not his world so others should probably take up action if the boys went too far.

He looked to the woman but she was busy looking in the other direction and searching for something in her pocket.

One of the guys began kicking the bench the old man sat on and Wars eyes narrowed.

The yelling became louder and suddenly one of the boys ripped the bag from the old man, throwing it on the ground and laughing at the older man who still sat on his place terrified of moving.

War sighted, threw another look at the woman in front of him and stood up.

He flexed his shoulders, moved his left hand and got once more used to the feeling of actual flesh and bones at this place in his temporary body before walking head on into the direction of the yelling.

Two of the boys noticed him and alerted their friends.

The biggest of them was nearly as big as Wars human body and was probably doing sports, just like the rest of them.

He could see why they didn't run already, they were young and foolish, more than him and they were drunk.

Not too much but enough to overestimate themselves and pick on the weak.

"He had enough." Declared War as he stepped in front of them and nodded to their victim.

The boys just grinned to each other and despite them backing of from War they continued to linger around.

"But the guy is our friend!" the biggest of them said and slapped the older man lightly on the cheek.

The man didn't move, just took the slap and stared in front of himself.

"We are not doing him any harm you see? Just a little bit of fun!" the big guy exclaimed and faked a wide smile.

"You are lying and you should be showing more respect to your elders." War growled, not buying what the other man said for one second.

"Well, at last I am not ignoring him!" the guy sat down beside the older man and pulled him in to a reluctant hug.

The boys laughed and War ignored them.

"You are leaving. Now." he said, like a matter of fact.

"But this is a public place man!" one of the other guys said, dangerously close to him.

"Yea! You ain't telling us what to do!" exclaimed the next, stepping one inch closer than the other one.

Wars right hit him straight in the face and took him of his feet.

Another of his friends tried a wide swing at Wars head, but the Warrior ducked down and placed two strong punches at his abdomen that took the air out of his lung and let him collapse.

The third one tried to jump on his back but War managed to catch him by his shoulder, made a swift sidestep and threw him down on the ground with all his might, breaking floor tiles in the process.

All that happened in a matter of moments and only now had the biggest of them managed to stand up and draw a knife out o his pocket.

He didn't even manage to say something as War moved to him with two quick steps.

War catched the boys arm as he tried to ram his knife into the side of the Horseman and forced him to drop it.

A fast left swing hit Wars head and he ignored the strange high amount of pain before twisting the arm he had in his hold around and forcing the man on the knees.

"Ah! Shit! Okay, I am sorry! I mean it!" the young man was begging on his knees as War watched how two of his friends decided to make a run for it. One was limping, the other one spitting teeth.

"No you are not. You are only sorry to have met me." War corrected him and dislocate his arm.

The scream that followed was only short as War stepped aside and knocked him out with one hard punch.

War took a look around and nodded to the old man on the bench who seemed a whole lot happier now.

He was handing the man back his bag and received a truly grateful smile, something War wasn't too used to.

"Thank you." The man whispered as War heard screams from one of the exits of the station where three men dragged the two escapees back to him.

"We saw what happened." One of them with a black beard and the looks of just having gotten out of another fight declared.

"What did they do to receive such a beat down?" asked the next one with a scar across his face and a black eye nodding to the young man in the grip of his big but small eyed friend.

"They attacked this man!" explained the woman that had looked the other way before, holding a mobile phone in her hand.

"I already called the police. They were harassing him and he stepped in…"

War didn't hear what she was saying as he finally saw the man he was waiting for.

"What a bunch of a-holes." Blackbeard exclaimed as he heard the story and War grabbed the knife on the ground before he went to the exit without another word.

As he had climbed the stairs to the surface he saw his contact again and approached him.

"A Horseman defending the weak, not something you see too often." The man in a brown business suit matching his hair color said seemingly to himself, watching the traffic.

"I was not protecting the weak, I was just beating assholes." War said.

"Seems like it was both."

Wars Eyes narrowed. "I think Strife would have been better for this assignment, but we didn't know you would be coming."

"Originally Michael wanted to come, but I could convince him to let me get down here. But I would not say that Strife and I would go along any better, he would probably convince me to visit some bars or pubs until midnight until we forgot our mission. Sorry for being late by the way, I totally forgot that we weren't allowed to use too much magic on earth and the traffic was horrendous."

"Simply tell me what I need to know Raphael." War demanded.

"Cutting straight to the case, as ever." The Archangel in human form noticed and cleared his throat.

"Well, the monster the charred council wants to be hunted down and brought in is actually pretty human, at last in intellect. He has many names, now he is going with simply Joseph, some kind of jab at a guy from one of the humans holy books I guess. He is also actually from one of the middle planes of hell but clearly even the Devil himself branded him a traitor. Some day he had a mission down here but used some twisted magic to get a way back. We threw him back at last three times but somehow he always found another way back, this time he stole a artifact from one of the higher demons to do so. We wouldn't actually need your help to bring him in, but the charred council doesn't want him to simply be downcast again."

"They probably want to make an example of him." War said.

"A task much easier to do if the council had just hidden our true nature from the humans like any other mission, instead of putting us into this restricted bodys."

"How is your arm doing?" Rapahel asked innocent.

"It feels a bit strange, nothing spectacular. Go on."

The Archangel told the Horseman how he would be able to find the one they were looking for and all the details he thought would be necessary before he left to catch his train.

War made sure that the knife he had taken was hidden before he began to walk away.

He ignored the heavier falling snow, put his hood on and garbed the strange thing the humans called mobile phones. Maybe he should call Fury first.

* * *

><p>Note: Any and all Reviews about story, content or writing mistakes are much appreciated and help me stay motivated to continue the story.<p> 


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